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The ‘best movies’ list that kicked off a culture clash · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of the Front.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. They're the topics at the heart of
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  Speaker 1: the most intense water cooler wars, best TV shows, best movies.
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  Speaker 2: And best songs.
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  Speaker 1: But how can you really compare Succession to Bluey, or
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  Speaker 1: Parasite to Barbie or what defines the best anyway? The
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  Speaker 1: whole concept is, of course flawed and ridiculous, but maybe
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  Speaker 1: that's what makes it so much fun. The Australian's Culture editor,
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  Speaker 1: Milanda Route is my guest today Succession is the best
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  Speaker 1: TV show of all time. That might be a controversial,
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  Speaker 1: but it's what the Australians experts have decided in our
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  Speaker 1: Culture section's list of the best twenty five shows of
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  Speaker 1: the past twenty five years. To be fair, Milanda, do
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  Speaker 1: you think Succession is the best TV show of the
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  Speaker 1: past twenty five years?
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  Speaker 3: I do. I think it's just so brilliantly staged. The
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  Speaker 3: acting is extraordinary, the scriptwriting is phenomenal, and the swearing
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  Speaker 3: just you can't go past. What's your favorite moment in Succession?
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  Speaker 3: I love the kind of group scenes where they're all
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  Speaker 3: in rooms. There's a fantastic one where they're on a
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  Speaker 3: yacht somewhere deciding who's going to take the fall for
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  Speaker 3: an issue that's coming up in Congress. I mean, I
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  Speaker 3: think the obvious choices and I hate to say it
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  Speaker 3: because he's such a swell guy, is what Tom?
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  Speaker 4: Excuse me, Tom, I fucking love you, dude, but you.
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  Speaker 2: Shout the bed over Mo Lester and I was sent
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  Speaker 2: in there as the beating man.
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  Speaker 4: I took the beating. You got suckered in by Evis.
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  Speaker 2: I answered the question.
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  Speaker 4: You don't answer the questions.
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  Speaker 2: You don't answer the question.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, that's like rule one.
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  Speaker 3: I read once that the way that they that was
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  Speaker 3: like a place. So they put all the cameras around
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  Speaker 3: the actors and didn't tell them where they were, so
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  Speaker 3: the actors just got lost in the scene. And then
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  Speaker 3: you just get this extraordinary interplay between all the characters,
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  Speaker 3: and they're just fantastic actors.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a family drama.
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  Speaker 1: It's very high stakes because we're talking about a lot
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  Speaker 1: of money and a lot of power in their control
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  Speaker 1: of a media empire. But what is it that makes
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  Speaker 1: succession not just days of our Lives or another family
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  Speaker 1: centered kind of sopie. I think it's because it's this
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  Speaker 1: insight into the lives of the very very rich and
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  Speaker 1: very very famous. They go to Tuscany, they have helicopters
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  Speaker 1: in New York and it's just that family dynamics anywhere,
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  Speaker 1: but on the backdrop of you know, what would your
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  Speaker 1: family act like if you were worth billions and how
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  Speaker 1: would you argue with your brother about who's going to
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  Speaker 1: take over the company. So I think it's fascinating because
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  Speaker 1: if you think about what it would do to your
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  Speaker 1: life and how you would react, I think it's just great.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the shows that I was thrilled to see
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  Speaker 1: in the Australians Top twenty five list were Slow Horses,
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  Speaker 1: Call My Agent, the French showbiz drama Slash Comedy, which
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  Speaker 1: is fantastic, and Bluey Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Was that a controversial inclusion among the judges.
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  Speaker 3: I think it was. I was interested in to see
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  Speaker 3: how it went amongst our viewers and interestingly, en after
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  Speaker 3: they're all supportive of it because I think it is
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  Speaker 3: our biggest cultural export since Crocodile Dundee. I mean, there's
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  Speaker 3: reports that there's kids across America with austrain accents. Brisbane
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  Speaker 3: is cool. It's all this cultural capital that's come out
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  Speaker 3: of what is a beautiful, heartfelt show. And as a
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  Speaker 3: parent who watched it, it saved me from Pepper Pig,
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  Speaker 3: So I always grateful because it's intelligent and it appeals
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  Speaker 3: to children and adults, and it also is an interesting
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  Speaker 3: take on parenting because it's a father, so I think
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  Speaker 3: it hits all the right notes.
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  Speaker 1: Lists are a dime a dozen, and in journalism there's
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a cliche now about listicals. You know
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  Speaker 1: that it's almost like a cheap and dirty way to
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  Speaker 1: get reader engagement. I don't think that's what this is about, though.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me why you decided to do a list of
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  Speaker 1: the best TV shows.
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  Speaker 3: We're often, especially with television, trying to find something to watch.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone's got too many options and they don't know what
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  Speaker 3: to watch. And also everyone likes talking about shows and
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  Speaker 3: engaging with people. That used to be in the past
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  Speaker 3: a water cooler moment, but now it's online, so people
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  Speaker 3: are often searching for things. So for us, this list
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  Speaker 3: served two purposes. One was to provide information and possible
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  Speaker 3: things for people to watch in the future, but the
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  Speaker 3: others was just really engage our readers and see what
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  Speaker 3: they thought about it and then they exchange their views
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  Speaker 3: on it.
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  Speaker 1: Was it about working out who your audience is too.
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  Speaker 1: You've just recently taken over the culture section and given
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  Speaker 1: it a big revamp.
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  Speaker 3: Yep. There was one particular comment that we got with
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  Speaker 3: the TV show which was loved the comments, really interesting
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  Speaker 3: list and now it's going to help me figure out
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  Speaker 3: what to watch next week. And so that's what we
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  Speaker 3: wanted to do. We want to give readers something useful,
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  Speaker 3: but also provide them, you know, a forum to hab
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  Speaker 3: a chat.
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  Speaker 2: What was the audience's main problem with your ranking and
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  Speaker 2: with your list and what was the thing that they
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  Speaker 2: most agreed with you about.
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  Speaker 3: One of the issues that they had was that we
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  Speaker 3: didn't include the Sopranos, but that was more because it
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  Speaker 3: started before two thousand and one and we had to
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  Speaker 3: kind of had a cut off point. Adolescence wasn't a
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  Speaker 3: huge success amongst our readers. And then one that we
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  Speaker 3: had missed was a show called Mister in Between? Right,
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  Speaker 3: how many how many people?
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  Speaker 1: If you had the guess, how many people would you
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  Speaker 1: say that you've assaulted.
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  Speaker 4: Apes?
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  Speaker 3: Now, how do you feel about that?
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  Speaker 5: Fine that it comes? I mean, I'm pretty big on
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  Speaker 5: just respect. If you respect me or respect you. Yeah,
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  Speaker 5: if you don't, we've got a problem.
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  Speaker 3: Let's talk about the moment. We had an overwhelming amount
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  Speaker 3: of people mentioned that and so as a result, we're
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  Speaker 3: going to do a story on which is a beauty
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  Speaker 3: of this kind of exercises that you find out more
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  Speaker 3: about tava shows that you missed.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, then you did films just because you hadn't
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  Speaker 1: had enough ang is from the audience. What is the
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  Speaker 1: Australian's critics' best film of the past twenty five years?
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  Speaker 3: The best film was Lord of the Rings.
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  Speaker 4: Legend tales of a ring created by an ancient evil
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  Speaker 4: that gave its where the power to enslave the world
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  Speaker 4: believed lust for centuries.
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  Speaker 3: Even talking about best, the culture team was really considering
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  Speaker 3: what that means. I mean, movies and television it's so personal,
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  Speaker 3: it's your view of it. But we measured it more
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  Speaker 3: on cultural impacts. So that's where kind of bluey comes
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  Speaker 3: into play when we look at the impact of that,
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  Speaker 3: or even adolescens in terms of you know, prime ministers,
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  Speaker 3: we're getting up talking about smartphones and kids. So with movies,
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  Speaker 3: we looked at the impact. So our number one was
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  Speaker 3: The Lord of the Rings series, which was backed by
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  Speaker 3: most of our readers. It was such an e pick
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  Speaker 3: movie series that one oscars smashed the box office save
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand. I mean, really, the tourism figures are extraordinary.
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  Speaker 3: I did some research that increased by about forty percent
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  Speaker 3: the way Golin was done with motion capture. I mean
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  Speaker 3: it really changed the entire industry. And in fact, the
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  Speaker 3: other day I saw a video clip come up on
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  Speaker 3: Instagram of a couple getting married at Hobbiton and Elijah
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  Speaker 3: would surprise them. That was twenty five years later and
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  Speaker 3: people still love it, so they think it really touched
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  Speaker 3: that point.
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  Speaker 1: Parasite versus Barbie, that's up in round two.
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  Speaker 2: Number two. I've got an issue with number two.
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  Speaker 1: That was Parasite, which I'm frankly refusing to see. I
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  Speaker 1: know it won a million oscars, It's a Korean film
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  Speaker 1: that frankly seems incredibly depressing.
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  Speaker 2: Even the name is depressing. And then number three was Barbie.
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  Speaker 4: P Barb.
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  Speaker 2: Can I come to your house today?
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  Speaker 4: Sure?
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  Speaker 1: I don't have anything to be planned, just a giant
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  Speaker 1: blowout party with all the Barbie's and plant choreography and
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  Speaker 1: a bespokes on.
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  Speaker 2: You should stop by so cool.
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  Speaker 1: Sure it did a lot of money at the box office.
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  Speaker 2: Margot Robbie's a superstar and we love her.
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  Speaker 3: But Barbie was kind of stupid, wasn't it. Barbie was
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  Speaker 3: definitely not loved amongst our readers. I would argue the opposite.
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  Speaker 3: I think that it's saved the box office post pandemic.
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  Speaker 3: I went and took my daughter to the one of
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  Speaker 3: the first shows and was sitting there in a room
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  Speaker 3: full of people dressed up as Barbie can and having
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  Speaker 3: the best time. And also my son asked me what
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  Speaker 3: the patriarchy was and he was eight. So I love Barbie,
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  Speaker 3: but a lot of people disagree. I'm not hearing a ringing,
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  Speaker 3: defensive parasite from you. No, I'm more with you. I
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  Speaker 3: feel like the critical acclaim movies sometimes are slightly depressing,
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  Speaker 3: but I guess it also speaks to the power of
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  Speaker 3: career as a cultural powerhouse when it comes to movies
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  Speaker 3: and film and television and skincare and songs and everything.
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  Speaker 1: The best thing about these list is that you then
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  Speaker 1: let the audience vote these movies up and down, yes,
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  Speaker 1: and decide for themselves how they want to rank them.
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  Speaker 1: So tell me with the audience take on the movie's list.
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  Speaker 1: What did they choose as the best?
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  Speaker 3: So they chose No Country for Old Men?
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  Speaker 4: How much? I'm sixteene? Ye're all getting any rain up here? Away?
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  Speaker 4: What work would that be? I've seen you was from Dallas?
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  Speaker 4: What the business of yours? Where I'm from? Friend? I mean?
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  Speaker 3: And then I think Lord of the Rings was number three,
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  Speaker 3: So our list wasn't hugely different. Barbie was number twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: They couldn't have put it anyhow, No.
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  Speaker 3: They couldn't. It was interesting. I read another comment that
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  Speaker 3: we're talking about including Bridesmaids because Bridesmaids was the first
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  Speaker 3: time that women were funny in a movie, and there
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  Speaker 3: were you know, box off wasn't it was?
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  Speaker 4: Come on?
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  Speaker 3: Actually, have you seen nine to five, Dolly Partner? That's true,
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  Speaker 3: but they were kind of like post the Hangover. They
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  Speaker 3: were funny and they were crude and they were gross.
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  Speaker 3: And another reader comment said something like the movies that
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  Speaker 3: should be in the top twenty five of the ones
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  Speaker 3: that I rewatched, No Country for Old Men can't do
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  Speaker 3: that against men.
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  Speaker 2: No, the air compressive, Yeah, exactly, exactly. Andavia Badam's haircut,
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  Speaker 2: Yeah totally.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, Bridesmaids will rewatch, So maybe that's a
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  Speaker 3: good barometer how much you can sit down and rewatch
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  Speaker 3: a movie. I find Bridesmaids even more depressing than in Parasite,
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  Speaker 3: which is really Yeah, it makes me actually want to
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  Speaker 3: go and see some dystopian Korean kind of darkness just
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  Speaker 3: to cleanse my palette. Okay, so now I want to
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  Speaker 3: hear you defend another inclusion, which is Black Swan, which,
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  Speaker 3: in my view, frankly, was Natalie Portman indulging herself in
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  Speaker 3: this absolutely ridiculous ballet movie. Now I'm going to blame
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  Speaker 3: the resident ballet to Maine on your team, Bianca far
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  Speaker 3: Marcus for this.
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  Speaker 2: Is she responsible?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, she possibly is. I've watched it once or twice
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  Speaker 3: and I found it very horrifying and it needs a
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  Speaker 3: descent into madness. But yes, that definitely came from Bianca.
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  Speaker 3: I won't be giving that one.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Milanda, and I'm very excited by the
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  Speaker 1: new culture section. Can you give us a sneak preview
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  Speaker 1: of anything you've got coming up in the next little one.
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  Speaker 3: Well, speaking of a list, we have our songs one
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  Speaker 3: to coincide with the Arias, which is on November nine,
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  Speaker 3: and I think that's probably the most difficult one because
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  Speaker 3: I feel like songs are much more personal. One of
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  Speaker 3: the songs on the list is from tam Imparlor The
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  Speaker 3: Less I Know, the Better and I love that, except
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  Speaker 3: that I played that at nauseum during lockdown, so I
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  Speaker 3: can't listen to it again. So I think songs are
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  Speaker 3: going to be interesting because they're even more personal, and
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  Speaker 3: looking at the last twenty five years, there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of one hit wonders in there.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, if how to Make Gravy is number one on
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  Speaker 1: this list, I'm going to we're going to have an issue.
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  Speaker 3: No, No, I think it was before. It surely was
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  Speaker 3: before two thousand.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's good.
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  Speaker 1: Melander Rout is editor of the Australians Culture section. You
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  Speaker 1: can find it in print or online at the Australian
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: dot com dot au slash Culture. This episode of the
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  Speaker 1: Front was hosted by me Claire Harvey and produced by
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  Speaker 1: Jasper Leek.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us on the Front this week.
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  Speaker 1: Our team also includes Kristin amyot le It's mcgluw, Tiffany Demack,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Joshua Burton and Stephanie Combs.